by K J Carr
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Author's Notes
Immortal
Decision
Immortal Transformation
Book 1
K J Carr
Copyright © 2018 K J Carr
All rights reserved.
Thank you for purchasing and/or downloading this book. It is the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied and/or distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes without express written permission from the author.
Your support and respect for the property of this author is appreciated. This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales, is purely coincidental. The characters are creations of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
Cover design by Covers by Cherith
https://www.facebook.com/shreddedpotatoart
I wouldn’t have gotten here without Michael Anderle, who showed me that writing and publishing is possible. Thank you, Michael. I don’t think you can begin to realize the gift you have given so many budding authors.
WARNING:
This book does take creative license with some aspects of religion. It also contains swearing. If either of these subjects offend you, please do not buy this book.
Chapter 1
This was not how I had thought this day would go.
Yeah, I thought it would suck, because turning sixty never was welcomed by anyone with open arms.
But falling off a mountain? Nope, that wasn’t even in my wildest dreams.
It was funny that in those first few seconds, I wasn’t afraid. I thought about how Kaitie would kill me, if I even survived. And perhaps, if I didn’t, she would try to resurrect me, just so she could kill me again.
A stab of sorrow went through me at the thought of leaving Marcus alone. My brother had gone through so much, and now he would be truly alone.
And I thought about how beautiful the day was, the sky so blue, the trees a kaleidoscope of colors, the gorgeous face that hung over me….
Face? Wait…. My mind rewound.
“Beautiful day.” A deep baritone quietly reached my ears, causing me to whirl around in surprise. I glimpsed dark wavy hair that fell into even darker eyes, skin that was slightly golden, and the touch of a shadow on a strong chin — before I was airborne.
“Shit! Dog Gammit!”
The gorgeous asshole was the reason why I was falling to my death. Gravity, in this case, was not my friend.
It felt like everything was in slow motion. I slowly raised my eyes to meet his, my arm reaching out to grab him, my mouth opening wide to scream the words that were now frozen in my throat. His eyes had slowly gone wide in surprise, but then he narrowed them in determination, and he reached out his hand to grab mine.
Time sped up. My whole weight, which was way more than it probably should have been, popped my upper arm right out of my shoulder socket, as he stopped me from falling further.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!” I screamed.
“Nope, none of those.” The man muttered, his face frowning in concentration as he reached with his other hand to grab my shirt. That was not the best thing to do since my shirt quickly started moving up over my head.
“Hey!” I yelled, squirming.
“Shit.” He somehow managed to grab my other hand and then proceeded to lift me up onto the ledge.
“Fuck!” Pulling on a dislocated shoulder was intensely painful. While I was grateful he had saved my life, I also wanted to punch him right then. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!”
He let go of my arm, reaching down for my belt to pull me completely up onto the ledge.
I laid there, breathing heavily, cradling my arm across my chest. Tears ran down my cheeks as I gritted my teeth to keep from screaming out in pain.
A shadow crossed my face. Squinting, I couldn’t see the man’s face clearly, as he was looking down at me.
“We should take care of that now.” His voice was quiet.
“What? We who?” I squeaked.
He swiftly bent down, grabbed my wrist and put his other hand on my shoulder and pulled.
“You fucking asshole!” I screamed, rolling away from him.
“Perhaps I am.” He remained squatting next to me. “But how does it feel now?”
“What do you think?” I growled, glaring at him over my shoulder. “It hurts!”
“But does it hurt as much?” This guy was persistent.
“Yes! Wait…” I stopped and assessed things, moving my arm slightly. “No.” I grudgingly said. “But it still hurts.” I pouted. Being sixty doesn’t mean you can’t act like a toddler at times.
He reached out a hand and gently touched my shoulder. “Give me one more minute.”
Pulling me back over onto my back, he placed one hand under my shoulder, the other on top. Within seconds, I could feel a warmth in that area. Glancing down, I saw a light glowing between his fingers.
“What the fuck!” I flinched, but he pushed down on his top hand, the area growing even warmer.
“Stay still.” He snarled softly at me.
The warmth reached down into my shoulder, feeling perfect. Perhaps I should just stay just like this for a little while. Not because he told me to. Nope. I so wasn’t going to admit that to his face. I just wanted to relax right here for a while.
After a few minutes, the glow disappeared, and he removed his hands.
“Now?” He raised one eyebrow, questioning.
The warmth lingered for a few moments more before dissipating. I missed it, but staying here with a stranger’s hands on me probably wasn’t the smartest thing. I moved my shoulder, at first gingerly and then a little more vigorously.
“A little sore, but much better. How did you do that?” I eyed him suspiciously.
He grinned at me, sitting back on his toes. “Magic?”
I flopped back on my back, staring up at the sky. Wise ass. But I really wasn’t sure what I had seen. “Are you sure?”
“Nope, not at all.” He stood gracefully, his movements fluid. I squinted up at him. He was tall, at least from lying here on the ground. I knew I should get up, but going vertical from a horizontal position is difficult at my age. It had been difficult even when I was quite a bit younger, now that I thought about it.
Sitting up, my legs straight out in front of me, I shook my head. “It sucks to be old,” I mumbled to myself.
A hand came into my view, outstretched, offering. I cocked my head and peered up at him. “Eh?”
“Need help?” I could see the amusement on his face. That was just annoying. I ignored his hand and rolled onto my knees. One, two…. darn. Not going to be easy even in this position. One knee hurt from being banged against the rock while being pulled back up the cliff. The other probably had a touch of arthritis in it. I never had it checked out though. There were enough things wrong with me that I could ignore a little creakiness in a knee for a while.
The hand was
still there in my peripheral vision.
“Ugh!” I grabbed it and he lifted me to my feet as if I weighed nothing. Right. I knew I was technically overweight. My doctor told me every year for my annual visit, the old coot. This young man was just showing off.
Annoyed, I turned towards him, putting my hands on my hips and giving him my most intense stare. He laughed…Laughed! Well, it was more of a chuckle. But you must understand this was not a nice thing to do after scaring the crap out of an old lady, dislocating her shoulder, and then fixing the darn thing with magic. I rubbed the shoulder in question absently.
“What are you doing here?” I snapped at him.
“Here?” He looked around innocently, his gaze returning to me finally. “Talking with you.”
“I know that.” If I was a violent person, I would have hit him. Wait, I am a violent person…. No. No, Marcus told me I couldn’t go around hitting strangers just because they pissed me off. I took a deep breath, counted to five and then let it out.
“Why did you come out here, scare the crap out of me, then save and heal me?”
I was proud of myself. That actually sounded calm and in control.
He smiled at me. And I almost swooned. That was a smile to rival the sun. Humans shouldn’t have that much wattage in something that had to do with facial muscles.
He was tall, towering over my five-foot, five-inch frame. Probably around six feet in height. Since I called things as I saw them, I would definitely say he was a hunk. Young and beautiful like only those that are young and beautiful could be. He obviously lifted weights or did some sort of body weight exercise – his arms were thick with muscles but not too bulky, his shoulders wide, and his hips slim. And he had a face of an angel with devil eyes!
And those eyes were amazing! Dark brown with a ring of purple on the outside looked back at me, surrounded by long, dark lashes. They were framed by dark curls that eased over his forehead and framed his face. He wore his hair long, almost touching his shoulders, and I wanted to see if it was as soft as it looked.
No touching the babies, I reminded myself, stuffing my hands into my front pockets. I realized he hadn’t answered my question. “Well?”
“I came looking for you.” I swear he was laughing at me!
“Me? I don’t believe you.” I retorted bluntly.
“You, Jennica Maykis.”
“How do you know my name?” Now, that was creepy. I started to step back but remembered that there was air somewhere close by behind me. I glanced around, and shuffled slowly back towards the brambles and away from the edge. I wondered if I would be able to pick out the path without putting my back towards this lunatic.
He sighed, pushing the hair back out of his face with both hands, holding them and most of his hair on top of his head.
“Jennica…”
“Nica.” I absently replied, moving closer to the supposed path. He turned so that he was still facing me.
“Nica, today is your sixtieth birthday. Happy Birthday.”
Now I could say I was officially freaking out. Not only did he know my name, he knew both my birth date and my age. What sort of stalker was this guy?
“I hope you know you are not making me feel warm and fuzzy.” The brambles caught on my jeans and I quickly looked down. I saw the faint path a little off to my left and I moved that way.
“Please wait, Nica.” Amusement was gone from his voice. He sounded like he really wanted me to stand here while he…. what? Ravished me? Killed me? Well, ravishing might be nice; it has been a while… No! I had to leave before he convinced me that he was some innocent young man only here to do…. something nice. I turned and started to push through the brambles.
“Wait, please, Nica!” He placed his hand on my arm, holding me in place. I noticed he had been thoughtful enough to have grabbed my other, not newly healed, shoulder. Perhaps half a point to him for that.
I turned my head. “Why? Why should I let someone I don’t know but who knows too much about me convince me to stay here to talk about who knows what?” I strained to move forward but only made it a step or two.
“Because...” Suddenly two magnificent wings appeared behind him. They were black with dark purple highlights, rising at least a couple of feet above his head and dropping to the ground. He dropped his hand as I turned to stare at him in wonder. The wings snapped out to their full width and I noticed that there were touches of silver on the tips of his flight feathers.
Standing there, he was beyond beautiful. He was ethereal. He was…
I pinched my thigh. “Ouch!”
This could not be real. I must have hit my head. Perhaps I was dead, my broken body just lying at the bottom of the cliff.
“Whoa.” The sound slipped out. “Am I dead?”
He pulled his wings in a bit, looking confused for a moment, before throwing his head back and laughing. As he did so, the wings disappeared from behind him. My legs grew wobbly, and I almost dropped to the ground but realized that there were brambles. One did not roll in brambles. Need. To stay. Standing.
“You are not dead.” He choked out.
“Why am I seeing angels?” I said mainly to myself while still staring at him.
He chuckled and put a hand out to me. I frowned at it a minute, realizing that since I have met him, he seemed to be holding a hand out to me a lot.
“Let’s go to your brother’s restaurant and talk there, Nica, where there are more people around. I will tell you what I am and why I have been looking for you.”
“You know Marcus?” Who was this guy?
“No, I have not had the pleasure of meeting him yet. I would be grateful if you would introduce me to him.”
“Introduce you?” I was feeling a tad faint. If not dead, perhaps I was in the midst of a vertigo drop attack, lying on the ground somewhere, crazy out of my head. “I don’t know who you are. I don’t even know your name.”
Perhaps this is a panic attack – is this what one feels like? I should definitely go home and go to bed. It is turning into a “covers over the head” kind of day.
I turned to leave, stumbling slightly. He came up behind me, putting a hand on my lower back to steady me and…I must admit, push me a little through the brambles to the main path. “My name is Malak. And I am a messenger.”
I stopped on the path, forgetting for a moment which way I needed to go. Malak waited with me for a moment until he realized that I was not moving. Then he put his arm around my shoulder and guided me down the path towards the parking lot.
“Messenger? What message?” Right now I was so confused I didn’t even realize that this hunky young man had an arm around me like I was an old friend or lover.
“Well, not a message per se.” He guided me, looking straight ahead. “It really is a decision that you will need to make.”
“Decision?” I felt a bit slow, but there have been quite a few shocks since this man had appeared. “What decision?”
“Let’s wait for me to explain that when we are sitting down. I think you will need to be stationary before we get into this discussion.” Malak glanced quickly down at me before looking forward again.
I could see the few hikers we met on the trail down glancing at us curiously. Perhaps they thought he was my son…Nah. Well, maybe. There have been mother-son pairs that looked more different than we did. I suspected, though, it was more because I looked like I had had a seizure or something, with the dirt on my shirt and the confused look on my face.
His arm was getting to be a bit uncomfortable for me. It had been a while since I had leaned on anyone, but I couldn’t get into that habit again. It was way too hard when people left me to carry on without them. I pulled away from him and continued walking.
“Can you drive, or do you want me to?” He had let me have my space for the rest of the way down, which was nice of him.
“What?” I glanced over at him.
He waved towards the parking area, which we were approaching finally. “Can you drive?
Or would you like me to drive?”
“Don’t you have your own car?” How had he gotten here if he didn’t have a car? This hiking trail was popular, but it wasn’t near town at all. It really wasn’t within walking distance.
“No, I don’t. Not here.” His eyes dance with amusement.
I stopped. “How did you...?” I shook my head and started forward, digging my keys out of my backpack. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.”
I beeped the remote, the car doors unlocking. I moved to take the driver’s side, and he gracefully moved around the car to the other side. He paused after opening the door.
“But you do have an idea about it.” He just had to have the last word.
He got into the car, the door shutting gently.
I exhaled, staring over the roof of my car for a moment. He wasn’t implying that he flew here, was he? No, he couldn’t be. Someone would have seen him. Wouldn’t they?
I shook my head and then slid into the car.
Chapter 2
The ride to Marcus’s restaurant was quiet. I concentrated on driving and blanked everything else from my mind. I mean, angels? It had to have been a trick of some sort he had been playing on me. Heck, I was spiritual, but I didn’t believe that angels were walking amongst us on earth. That was more of a Kaitie sort of thing.
I was pretty much of the party that angels were symbolic. Angels didn’t exist, but angelic like people did. That sort of thing. And yet, a man with invisible wings was sitting in my car. Go figure.
Malak spent the time staring out the window. It appeared that he hadn’t really seen this part of New Hampshire, so I wondered again how he had gotten to my special hiding place and where he really was from. He refused to say anything until we were sitting in the diner, so I held my tongue. Which is a very hard thing for me to do.
I figured it probably would be good to have a strong cup of coffee in front of me before I got some of his answers. Perhaps I could also convince Marcus to give me a shot of Bailey’s – I may just need the touch of alcohol to get through his explanation.